Computer-based RPGs have been around for decades, dating back to highly fixed single-user, text-based games such as the venerable Zork. Zork was an early role playing game wherein players were required to determine, as they interacted with the game as defined by its software, the nature of fixed, predefined plot lines in order to advance through sequences of predefined locations and events and reach the end of the game.
Later, multi-player on-line RPGs were developed which allowed human players to interact with each other within computer-generated virtual environments supported through a combination of software running on their own computer and software provided, via a communications linkage, by a game server. These games have come to be known as Massively Multi-player On-line Games or MMOGs. These role-playing games allow large number of on-line users to participate in the game-playing experience together, cooperating with each other or, conversely, obstructing each other, as they try to accomplish tasks within the computer-based environment. Early MMOGs include UltimaOnLine and Everquest™. U.S. Pat. No. 6,767,287 B1, for example, discloses a computer system and method for implementing such a game. This patent is assigned to Sony Computer Entertainment, the vendor of Everquest™ and other MMOGs.
Traditional MMOGs have provided only a fixed set of locations, a fixed set of computer-generated characters (known herein as Non-Playing Characters or NPCs), and a fixed set of events that the human players can interact with. Human players are represented by in-the-game characters commonly known as avatars, which the human player can move from place to place within the virtual environment of the game. In so doing, the human player, through his/her avatar, can interact with various NPCs. Each NPC generally has assigned traits which define (and also limit) the interactions it can support, as well as an assigned goal in which a player (or multiple players) can become involved, either by assisting or impeding the NPC in achieving that goal.
MMOG Players may pay fees to maintain their right to continue access to the game server that maintains and supports their in-game interactions. If required, that fee keeps their in-the-game avatar “alive” from session to session within the virtual game environment, along with the status the player has achieved for their avatar as they have played the game. Status is generally modified by in-game experiences such as overcoming obstacles or gathering possessions. Status may also be decreased by negative experiences, such as being killed by a foe.
In traditional RPGs, however, the natures of the environment, NPCs, and experiences available to the player are generally largely fixed, meaning that repeated player activities along the same path in the in-game environment will produce essentially the same results. For example, if entry to a particular location produces the appearance of a computer-generated monster (a form of NPC), which must be dispatched in order to move through that location to the next, each subsequent entry to that location will cause the same monster to appear and be dispatched, generally by performing the same sort of attack on the monster that was performed the first time. Thus, repeated interactions with the same NPC, e.g., a vendor in a computer-generated marketplace, will result in the same sequence of events. A given vendor, for example, might sell a needed weapon, but that specific NPC will always (and only) sell that same weapon in the same manner. Further, if a given NPC has a goal, such as becoming mayor of his or her town, once that goal has been accomplished, a human player can no longer have a meaningful interaction with that NPC, but rather the NPC may only state “Thanks for helping me become mayor.”
The end result of the fixed nature of current MMOGs has too often been a loss of interest by the fee-paying players who grow tired of the repetitive nature of their game-playing experiences and, hence, terminate their subscription to the game service. As a result, game providers generally employ teams of software developers who work to develop new content for their on-line games. These developers labor to create new locations, new NPCs, and new in-game experiences by releasing so-called “patches” from time to time so that experienced players can have new experiences within the on-line environment. In so doing, however, the nature of the previously defined portion of the game environment is rarely, if ever, modified. Thus, even with occasional opportunities to have new experiences within the added aspects of a newly “patched” on-line game environment, experienced players are still faced with the previously experienced and unchanged game situations and characters.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for a method of varying the in-game environment from time-to-time so that players are presented with new and different opportunities to have in-game experiences, such as with NPCs whose in-game goals have been changed.